FedEx Workers Lose Bid for Class-Action Status

(CN) – FedEx workers lost their bid for class-action status in a lawsuit accusing the company of stiffing them on pay for time worked before and after shifts and during unpaid breaks.

The 11th Circuit upheld the lower court’s finding that each worker’s claims were too individual to proceed as a class action. FedEx cited company manuals and handbooks, which established that employees would be paid based on their scheduled start and end times, not manual punch times. A worker who punched in at 7:45 a.m., but whose scheduled shift started at 8 a.m., would not be paid for that 15-minute gap. The company also argued that employees who worked through their breaks did so in violation of FedEx policies. The district court denied class certification on the basis that the plaintiffs’ claims “would be swamped by individual factual inquiries into the activities of each employee during the gap periods or during breaks.” “This reasoning is sound,” wrote U.S. District Judge Avant Edenfield, who participated in the Atlanta-based panel’s decision.